The story was apparently a tough sell to the network suits, who were particularly skeptical of the writers’ early conception of the Doctor’s time-traveling device. (An early idea about an invisible bubble evolved into the famous, faux-police box, the Tardis.) At the time, BBC executives discounted sci-fi as a too narrow niche and peculiarly American.

Steven Moffat, “Doctor Who’s” executive producer, told the BBC, “The story of Doctor Who is the story of television — so it’s fitting in the anniversary year that we make our most important journey back in time to see how the Tardis was launched.”

Joanne Ostrow has been watching TV since before "reality" required quotation marks. "Hill Street Blues" was life-changing. If Dickens, Twain or Agatha Christie were alive today, they'd be writing for television. And proud of it.